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| Thoughtful Alphabets discussed here. |
I have a vintage Edward Gorey journal from Pomegranate as the notebook of record by my computer. As I jotted today's findings, the phrase "battered chrysanthemums" caught my eye. Part of Gorey's Thoughtful Alphabet No. 10, the two words offered me just the right pinch of magic to feel not entirely deranged in the leaping associations my mind chooses to make. Crushed or rain-thrashed blossoms in vivid fall hues made a kind of sense I cannot possibly explain. Any attempt to guide you through what might be called a thought process would require a diagram similar to the old Arthur Murray directions for ballroom dancing.
I think our best course of action will be to acknowledge genius when we see it. From "jellied kelp" through "hopeless infatuation," "listless meandering" and "wretched excess," Mr. Gorey supplies more than enough evidence of his unconventionally superior mind. The rest of us are but battered chrysanthemums at his feet.
2 comments:
i so wish you lived close enough to visit his house with me when i went this past summer. what i didnt know, couldnt have known really, was that he was so well loved in his life. many, many friends, dear friends. there was still such palpable joy in that house...the sound of laughter around his dinner table.
Susan - Oh, I wish that, too. He seemed to be a man of pure delight, sewing his stuffed toys, appearing at the ballet in his ankle-length fur coat and Converse Hi-tops, stretching among the piles with his also well-loved cats. What a treat to savor that lingering joy. xo
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